This application is a Continuation-in-part of application 07/371,824 filed June 27, 1989 now abandoned.
Tomatoes are probably the favorite food gardening crop of gardeners in North America. Although they are relatively labor intensive compared to some other food crops, this is an asset to many home gardeners who enjoy puttering around in their garden. The tomato plant is very gratifying to the grower, inasmuch as if cared for properly in its growing and fruiting stages, it will produce many pounds of delicious tomatoes from a relatively small plant.
If left to its own devices, the weight of the tomatoes will easily bend the plant to the ground so that all of the tomatoes will lie on the ground. If allowed to do this, the tomatoes will soon rot and be eaten by worms and ground bugs. To prevent this, the plant must be tied up to hold the tomatoes suspended in the air. Ordinarily, this is done with a simple bamboo stick which is inserted in the ground, with the tomato plant being tied to various heights of the stick by cord or any other convenient binder.
Although it is true that many home tomato growers enjoy the ritual of growing the tomatoes and tying up the plants, nevertheless it can be tedious repeatedly tying the plant to a vertical bar as it continues to grow.
There is a need for a specially designed tomato stake which facilitates the tying of the tomato plants as they grow vertically, and also takes advantage of the fact that the stake is extended into the ground in the region of the tomato plant's roots and could be instrumental in irrigating the roots.
A number of these stakes have been developed as is evidenced by the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,965, issued May 10, 1977; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,863, issued Jan. 19, 1965; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,908, issued May 25, 1971; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,647, issued July 4, 1961; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,774, issued Oct. 18, 1967.
Whereas most stakes or poles have means for supporting transverse members in ladder-like fashion for tying the various heights of the tomato plant as it grows, those that do uniformly provide holes through the pole and anticipate using a certain size and type of stick or pole to pass through the opening. Even if these sticks are provided with the main pole, they will inevitably break and get lost, forcing the grower to search around to find replacements. A better design would accommodate sticks, poles, rods, and lengths of heavy wire, and anything else that might be lying around the premises of the grower.